A new threshold in fraud examination education

July/August 2006

ByWilliam J. Kresse, J.D., M.S., CFE, CPA

Fraud Edge

WILLIAM KRESSE SUCCEEDS MARY-JO KRANACHERWilliam Kresse, J.D., M.S., CFE, CPA, a professor at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Ill., is the new chair of the ACFE Higher Education Advisory Committee and Fraud EDge columnist. Kresse assumes both posts created by Mary-Jo Kranacher, M.B.A., CFE, CPA, who has moved on to other professional challenges. "I am honored by the appointment and look forward to this opportunity," Kresse says. "I also realize that it will not be easy to succeed Mary-Jo Kranacher as chair of this committee. I join many other educator members of the ACFE in wishing Mary-Jo all the best in her new and exciting professional opportunity. Her inspired leadership in this post will be difficult to duplicate, but with the assistance of the ACFE membership, along with the ACFE's wonderfully competent staff, I am confident that I will do my very best," Kresse says. "I look forward to hearing the comments and suggestions of educators and practitioners alike. Please feel to e-mail me at kresse@sxu.edu."

We stand at a threshold.Like other disciplines that have traveled this path before, fraud examination stands at the threshold of recognition in academia as a discipline worthy of degree status with the commitment of appropriate resources for research and curricular development.

Many colleges and universities now offer a course in fraud examination, and the numbers are growing. The ACFE has spearheaded this growth. Through the Anti-Fraud Education Partnership, the ACFE has, and continues to, address the need and demand for fraud examination education at the college and university level. And higher-education institutions from around the world have responded by participating in the Anti-Fraud Education Partnership.

But as we approach the goal of establishing at least one fraud examination course at all major colleges and universities, it's not too soon to consider the next plateau in the continuing evolution of fraud examination education: the establishment of fraud examination as an academic discipline and the development and growth of dedicated, multiple-course degree programs in fraud examination

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